Low-Carb Food Swaps Made Simple

What you eat lays the foundation for how you feel, says Primal Kitchen’s senior writer and educator, Lindsay Taylor Ph.D. Remember the adage: You are what you eat? “It's something we say, but do we take it to heart?” wonders Taylor.

“I believe that people often underestimate the link between what they eat and how their bodies feel and perform,” she says. She emphasizes that a healthy diet isn't about depriving our bodies, it's about nourishing ourselves with the food that allows us to feel our best. Making healthy low- carb food swaps is not only about finding healthy alternatives, but it also means not getting so distracted by “food rules” that you lose sight of your personal dietary goals.

Getting Back to Basics

Before we get into healthy food swaps, let's take a step back.

Taylor says that a common hurdle to healthy low-carb cooking is that many people don't feel completely comfortable in the kitchen. To build confidence in the kitchen, she recommends mastering a few basic cooking techniques:

• Learn how to use the broiler
• Learn how to roast vegetables
• Learn how to sauté
• Learn how to bake a chicken
• Learn how to cook large cuts of meat

Give it a try! You'll be surprised how a little kitchen confidence boosts morale, making it easier to home in on healthier alternatives for your favorite foods.

Healthy Food Swaps for Low-Carb Eating

Mark Sisson, founder of Primal Kitchen, is a living, thriving example of how dramatically your health can change when you make better food choices, using healthy ingredients.

Learn more about Mark's amazing story of transformation here

Falling in line with Sisson and Taylor's style of eating, let's look at some food substitutions for a lower-carb diet.

Cooking Oils

For healthy alternatives for vegetable, canola and soybean oils, opt for those with a naturally healthy profile of fatty acids (monounsaturated fats).

Choose: Avocado oil and high-quality olive oil

“The neutral flavors are perfect for roasting veggies and sautéing, and they make great dressings on salads,” says Taylor.

Baking

Enriched white flour and wheat flour have little nutritional value and are high in carbohydrates.

Choose: Almond meal, coconut flour, chickpea flour or cassava flour
 
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to baking is finding low-carb flour alternatives, but thankfully there are many. 

Noodles

Although zucchini has become the standard swap for pasta noodles, even zoodles call for a swap occasionally.

Choose: Turnips, celery root or beets

“Spiralized beets make amazing noodles,” says Taylor. “They have less water, fantastic flavor and more underlying texture. Beets with pesto—fabulous!”

And let's not forget the ubiquitous cauliflower swaps: cauliflower pizza crust and cauliflower rice. According to Taylor, turnips and parsnips make exceptionally good food substitutes for rice, too. “The same things over and over tend to get boring, so think about keeping your diet interesting. One way to do that is adding condiments, adding different flavors, adding different sauces,” she says. “But also, thinking outside the box and not fixating on food rules.”

Flipping the Script on Food Substitutes

There's no doubt that looking for healthy alternatives is beneficial and necessary for healthy eating. But Taylor offers an interesting perspective on healthy food swaps.

She says that too often people get hung up on trying to recreate the food they're used to. “Rather than thinking, ‘How can I make what I'm eating now, using food substitutes?’ try thinking, ‘What can I make that's great with meat and vegetables and eggs?’ Start with the ingredients and ask, ‘what can I make’ rather than starting with a dish in mind and asking, ‘how can I make this work?’”

“What it all really comes down to,” she reminds us, “is giving your body nourishment. There are lots of paths that can get you there.”